Why would you want to blend two soybean varieties together? Why not plant only the highest-yielding variety in as many fields as you can?

Jeff Ezell says if you have just one soil type, you might be better off with the highest-yielding variety. But if soil types vary, planting two varieties instead of one can reduce risk of failure in tough years. The tough year may be one that's too dry, or it might be one that's wet with lots of disease pressure.

GOOD HARVEST, YEAR IN YEAR OUT: Blends of two varieties can reduce risk and actually yield better than either variety alone where soils are variable, notes Jeff Ezell, Winfield Company.

Ezell is regional product manager for Winfield, based in Plainfield, Ind. Winfield is the parent company for Croplan, and Winfield in turn is owned by Land-O'-Lakes cooperative. Croplan is increasing its offering of what the company calls "Precision Paks" for the Eastern Corn Belt this year.

"The concept started about 15 years ago in Iowa and southern Minnesota," Ezell says. "The first ones were introduced to combat iron deficiency chlorosis, a big deal in that area."

The problem was that if you planted a high-yielding variety without resistance to IDC, yield could suffer dramatically, he explains. But at the time some varieties resistant to IDC were also not high yielders. Mixing the two helped a producer have a better shot of harvesting at least a decent crop, Ezell says.

"We began looking at the eastern part of the Corn Belt a few years ago in regard to this practice," he says. "Soils are more variable compared to the Western Corn Belt. It's more likely to have two or more different soil types in the same field."

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When that happens there is more risk that in any given season, a single variety might not perform up to par on all soil types.

"We want an offensive variety out there for yield," Ezell says. "But a defensive variety offers good resistance against phytophthora root rot, sudden death syndrome and other diseases."

In a 100-acre field with variable soil types, 60 acres of a Precision Pak planted in the middle of the field easily out-yielded 20 acres of each variety in the Pak planted on either side of the Pak, the product manager says. The same concept was tested in replicated plots with the same result.

Precision Pak composition
Each Pak is a 50-50 blend of two varieties, Ezell says. The company takes care to match varieties that are very close on maturity.

"We have a Pak rated at 3.3 maturity that contains a 3.2 and a 3.4 variety," he explains. "One 3.8 Pak contains 3.8 and 3.9 varieties. A 3.7 Pak includes 3.7 and 3.8 individual varieties. The goal is to pair varieties that are within a day or two of each other on maturity."

The company by now offers 36 Pak options. Some Precision Paks are better suited to certain areas of the marketing region, and others fit best in other locations. Ezell concludes that blending varieties is a strategy that has paid off for producers, especially in special disease situations and on fields with variable soil types.